


Cat's Cradle

by rosemoon_bunny



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Realities, Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Cameos, Friendship, I haven't decided if there will be ships, I'll update tags as I go, Multi, This is such a mash of different concepts, Worldbuilding, Yang Jeongin | I.N-centric, but now I blew it way out of proportion, inspired by the mvs, low-key has some madoka magica vibes, this was originally a fun concept of mvs and theories that I had planned awhile ago
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2020-03-27
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:53:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23342020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosemoon_bunny/pseuds/rosemoon_bunny
Summary: Between the children's hands, is a tangled mess of string, formed in the shape of a crown. No more figures to be made out of it. They frown. The younger looks up at his grandma with scrunched eyebrows.“If it’s so dangerous, then why even use our powers.”The grandmother smiles fondly at him, helping to move the strings backwards and into a new shape, ”The hope is that you will think carefully and use your powers to protect from those that harm the balance of the universe, and in some cases fix it.”The string returns to a smooth connection between the boys hands. The friends shoot blinding smiles at each other.----A group of friends is scattered between alternate realities, it's up to one boy to pull them together and save the existence of everything while they're at it.aka Yang Jeongin just wanted a nap and some chocolate milk, but he needs to save his friends and the universe first. priorities.
Relationships: Bang Chan/Everyone, Han Jisung | Han/Everyone, Hwang Hyunjin/Everyone, Kim Seungmin/Everyone, Lee Felix (Stray Kids)/Everyone, Lee Minho | Lee Know/Everyone, Seo Changbin/Everyone, Yang Jeongin | I.N/Everyone
Comments: 1
Kudos: 19





	1. Prologue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s comforting despite the situation, the warmth of a friend's love. It’s why he knows despite the risks, he must take drastic actions in order to save everyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was something I began a long time ago, and just got reinspired by the mixtape music video to actually try something with. So now I have a very interesting mix of concepts. I didn't know if I should leave Woojin in this or not, but because of the how this had been planned out I kept him but I changed it a lot so I could keep it sort of mediated. He's kinda in this in his own way. This is out of my normal writing style, and I don't have serious plan for this, this is just to help me cause I am an anxious bean. So if need by I can always change and make modifications later, also I don't have an editor sooo...hi welcome to my uncontrolled chaos

In the absence of hope, there is desperation.

It is at this moment that the boy receives a terrible reminder of those words.

_ Run! _

_ Quickly, quickly, quickly! _

_ We can escape, we must escape. _

The words bounce around in his skull and at this rate, the boy is unsure if the thoughts are his own, or if they belong to that of the seven surrounding boys. At the moment he’s not sure it matters. If they don’t escape now, it’s over. In the absence of hope, there is desperation. They are all certainly desperate. 

“Everyone, to the left quickly! Head for the fence, find the weak spot!” The voice of the leader rings out. 

Like lightning the group whips to their left, feet thundering against the pavement. The footsteps of their chasers like a muffled war drum in the distance, as they rush to escape the building that has held them detained for so long now.

The boy is afraid, so afraid.

_ What do I do? _

Next to him, his friend stumbles.

“Binnie!”

He reaches to steady his friend, but there’s no time to stop. His hand wraps around the others, and drags him forward. 

As they round the corner of the building, the fence comes into view. 

For a brief moment, the group is filled with relief.

But over the sound of labored breathing, a slight snap of a twig draws their attention to the bushes on the other side. They come to a halt, silence like a fog falls over them. Something dark is settled in the woods, dark like the night, but something far more sinister. A chill settles over the group.

With a start the leader springs into action, “It’s been compromised, to the other side!”

Like puppets on a string they move in an orchestrated movement, limbs ready to spring forward. A cold intrusion of thought stops them in their track.

_ It’s too late, we’re surrounded. _

This time the boy knows the thought is not his own.

Before there is time to question, lights that surround the fences begin to flicker, and then darkness washes over them.

It’s when the hope and determination in the leader’s eyes turns to dread, that the boy finds himself a solution. 

_ In the absence of hope, there is desperation. _

Seven heads snap toward him, the hand holding his squeezes tighter. It’s comforting despite the situation, the warmth of a friend's love. It’s why he knows despite the risks, he must take drastic actions in order to save everyone. He makes eye contact with a boy across from him, and smiles.

“What are you-”

“Do you all trust me?” The boy asks.

“Yes.” comes the confident answer. 

The boy takes a deep breath, he feels the tingling of power beneath his skin. This is reckless and he knows it. But this is the only way, this was the power he was given, and the universe may be screwed if he doesn’t act. With the others weakened, he just feels thankful that he even has the strength for this left. He prays that he has enough strength, he has to. With no warning, he swipes his thumb quickly across the hand in his, and like that his friend vanishes like he was never there. 

“Wait-” The leader is cut off as the boy reaches him next, and with another touch, he is gone.

As quickly as he can, he gives no opportunity to be defied, and the group disappears until there is only one remaining boy with him.

“Why did you do that!? You know the potential consequences of opening the portals like that!” his friend accuses, eyes wide with fright.

The boy reaches and grabs his friend, but unlike the others he does not send him away immediately. 

“Listen to me, there isn’t much time-”

“But-”

“Please listen” the boy interrupts,”You’re the only one that can save us now, and I know you can do it. We have these powers so we can protect everything we care about, and this may be the only way to do that. You have to trust me, trust all of us, yourself. Do you still have faith in me?”

“Yes.”

The boy smiles comfortingly. The sounds of footsteps grew louder.

“Good. Now I’m placing my trust in you. I just need you to remember that.”

And with a flick of his finger, the boy was all that remained. The final bit of his strength, shuts the portals. 

With no remaining energy, his legs wobbled and he slumped to the ground. 

_ They’re safe for now. That’s all that matters.  _

As the boy fades from consciousness, he hears footsteps come to a rest behind him.

The last thing he saw, gazing upon the other side of the fence, was a creature emerging from the bushes.

The faceless.

A sign on the building flicks back on.

_ District 9 _

\------

_ An elderly woman laughs as her grandchild and his friend look up at her in utter confusion.  _

_ It wasn’t an easy task to explain to young children that they have powers. It was an even more difficult task to explain the importance of said power, and the responsibilities that came with it. The woman picks up a string and begins to weave it around, and between the childrens hands.  _

_ “The universe is full of many things that are hard to understand. Time, realities, and fate. They are fickle things. You are some of the guardians that are meant to protect these aspects of the universe, for when they are messed with too much, it can have dire consequences. Even if you don’t mess up your timeline or your reality, you can still destroy the lives of others. Some go out of their way to cause trouble.” between their hands is now strategically woven strings, she begins to manipulate the figure.”While your powers are meant to help, even if you don’t abuse your power like other may choose to do so, if you act reckless you may end up with severe damage, that even with your abilities you may not be able to undo.” _

_ Between the children's hands, is a tangled mess of string, formed in the shape of a crown. No more figures to be made out of it. They frown. The younger looks up at his grandma with scrunched eyebrows. _

_ “If it’s so dangerous, then why even use our powers.” _

_ The grandmother smiles fondly at him, helping to move the strings backwards and into a new shape, ”The hope is that you will think carefully and use your powers to protect from those that harm the balance of the universe, and in some cases fix it.” _

_ The string returns to a smooth connection between the boys hands. The friends shoot blinding smiles at each other. _

_ The grandmother continues, “ You work with time and reality, which works differently than that of fate. It’s important to understand your boundaries, and learn theirs. Plus there are many other kinds of powers that exist that you must learn to accept and work with to.”  _

_ “What if between all these kinds of power there are too many contradictions?” _

_ The grandmother pauses, and thinks for a moment. _

_ “I suppose that’s when they should seek the guardian of all” _

_ “The guardian of all?” _

_ “The guardian of all balance, a friend of ours that has the biggest responsibility of all, to mediate all of the powers we talk about.” _

_ “That sounds complicated” The grandchild’s friend speaks up. _

_ “Because it is complicated, there is much to learn, and you might have to learn some lessons as you go” _

_ The children make faces of disgust as they whine, “more learning?” _

_ The grandma lets out a cackle at the children's behavior. _

_ A presence in the room changes, and the grandson immediately stills, turning behind him. _

_ There is a silhouette of a figure fading in and out, and his ears strain to catch a noise that he can’t quite decipher. When he turns to his friend, he is gone, and the strings are limp between his fingers. His grandma seems to be talking but he can’t hear her. Something behind him seems to be shouting, he focuses hard to hear the muffled words. _

_ A voice rings out. _

_ \----- _

“Yang Jeongin!”

The boy startles awake, bolting up in his seat. A paper attached to his face falls to his desk. Blinking in confusion, he rubs his temple.

_ What the hell kind of dream was that? _

“Gosh you’re a real pain to wake up.” A voice gripes.

Jeongin looks up from his desk, a little bitter at being woken up.

“Excuse me, but who are you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope the story comes together well that I don't have to explain too much of the concept in notes, but this intro was hard to write ,but it's been fun challenging myself. I hope everyone is having good days, and that my writing wasn't awful. I tried really hard to edit this, but insomnia and one braincell make that hard.


	2. Chapter 1: Signal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Do you really not remember me?” She grumbles indignantly.
> 
> Oh no.
> 
> His brain prepared a series of responses, anything that could possibly salvage this entire interaction. He really didn’t think angering a tiny girl is the way he wants to go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry if the format is whack, it's been a good moment since I have posted a work on this site.

The girl was cute.

Jeongin could admit that. 

Her face scrunched adorably in mild irritation. Her red hair brushed neatly over her shoulder. The blazer of her uniform was well pressed. Her hands rested on her hips, an eyebrow raised in question. He rubs his eyes trying to get rid of the sleep clinging to them. 

No name tag. 

Did he know her? He fidgeted with the cuff of his sleeve. Fumbling around in his brain trying to recall if he had seen her around anywhere. Was she in this class? Oh god. He hoped she wasn’t in the class, that would be so awkward if she had been here the whole time.

The girl cocks her head to the side. Analyzing him for a moment.

“Do you really not remember me?” She grumbles indignantly.

Oh no.

His brain prepared a series of responses, anything that could possibly salvage this entire interaction. He really didn’t think angering a tiny girl is the way he wants to go. 

He never gets the chance to respond.

“I see it hasn’t come back to you yet.” The girl sighs, she places a piece of paper on his desk. “These are the notes for the last little bit of class, I tried to block the teacher so he wouldn’t notice that you were sleeping.”

He blinks up in surprise at her odd comment, had he really had such an important interaction with this girl? Jeongin supposes it doesn’t matter, he’s thankful , so many other students would have just let him get caught for entertainment.

“Thank you, I appreciate that.” he says sincerely.

For the first time since her appearance, the girl shoots a smile at him, wide and blindingly cheerful.

“You’re welcome, though I must admit I’m not here to just give you notes. In fact the notes really aren’t that important. I woke you up, hoping that by now you’d remember, but it seems you haven’t.” 

Jeongin is puzzled. Seriously, where did he know this girl from? She obviously seems well acquainted with him. 

“Remember what?” He dares to question.

The girl’s expression grows serious for a moment. Her eyes seem to bore into Jeongin, looking for an answer to a question he’s not even sure he’s been asked. Then she snaps her finger,”Ah, I remember now what I was going to tell you. Since you’re up, you might want to go stop your friends.”

Friends? Why would he need to stop his friends? 

Then it hits like a freight train. 

“Hyungs!” 

He stumbles in his haste to jump out of his seat. How could he leave those dumbasses on their own, they had been a handful lately.

“Thank you so much for waking me up, but I need to go!” He bows.

Jeongin’s finger clumsily grab at the paper’s on his desk, stuffing them into his schools bag. The mess can be a problem for later. He’s ready to bolt out of the classroom, when the girl catches his arm in her grip. It’s not harsh, but he can’t help but find that she almost seems desperate for him to stop.

“Wait!” She reaches into the pocket of her uniform, and pulls out an envelope,”Since I have done my job to help you, I have a favor to ask in return. I have someone very important to see, but it’s also important that this letter gets delivered. Would you mind dropping it by room 325 on your way?”

Jeongin takes the letter, and frowns. He doesn’t recall a room 325. Wouldn’t that be on this floor? Lost in thought he almost misses the girl leaving to exit the room.

“Excuse me, but where is-”

“Oh I almost forgot.”

The girl turns to him, she smiles but her eyes are dead serious. Jeongin feels a bit of a shiver up his back, like he’s already anticipated what she’s about to say, but he doesn’t quite understand why.

“Avoid the bus route 4419, if you come into contact with that bus it could cause trouble for all of us.”

And with that, the girl was gone. Leaving Jeongin with more questions than answers. The boy couldn’t make any sense of anything that she said, why would he need to avoid the bus? Was she a ghost or something? God, he hoped it wasn’t a ghost, he couldn’t handle that.

“What the hell? That was so weird, and couldn’t she have answered my question before she left?” He whines to himself.

Jeongin pushes the strange interaction out of mind, he needs to hurry and drop this letter off so he can go check on his idiot friends. 

\----

Room 325 did in fact exist, though Jeongin still could not remember ever seeing it before. 

It was at the very end of the hallway, and the lighting was dim. He wondered if the girl had the room right, because from the outside it looked abandoned. The paint on the door was horrible scratched, and the window was covered in smudges. Hesitantly Jeongin pulls back on the handle of the door of the classroom, the hinges screeching in protest.

No one was in the room, but in the back he spotted a desk with some clutter. There wasn’t much dust, so the room wasn’t meant for storage. Making his way back to his desk, there were some old books with some form of foreign language on them, they looked antique but well kept. It was like they were calling to him, like so many things today they were familiar, but he couldn’t place a reason. Jeongin ran his finger over the smooth leather of the cover.

_“These my dear, are full of important information about your responsibilities.”_

He flinches back, hand coming to hold his head. A sharp throbbing pain settling in his temple.

“Now I’m dreaming even when I’m awake. My head hurts.”

Without a second thought, he lays the letter on the desk and exits the room as fast as possible. He had some troublesome hyungs to go collect. 

\----

A woman enters room 325.

She’s got enough stress with everything that’s going on. But being undercover as a school staff, and constantly having to wipe memories is exhausting, even if memory manipulation is her power. But when she jokingly told Jihyo she needed a raise, she had received a pinch on the side for her efforts. 

A yellow envelope sits on the desk. Her friends may joke that she's an old lady, but she knows for a fact it wasn’t there when she left. Carefully, she slid her nail under the fold to slice the envelope open, it contained a single sheet of paper. She began to read it.

The woman’s eyes narrowed as she placed the letter back on the desk, immediately picking up the phone and dialing a complicated sequence of numbers.

The phone rang once before it was answered, a soft voice coming through the receiver. 

The woman breathes out a sigh of relief, “ It’s Nayeon. We’ve located him, and two of the other boys. But it seems the others are still scattered.” There was a pause, the voice on the other end grew urgent. “No he doesn’t remember, none of them remember. We still don’t have any ideas as to how any of them ended up in this situation. With the guardian of time’s memories repressed, and the location of the guardian of reality unknown, there are no answers. They’re safe for now, but those _things_ are starting to show up in other realities too. I was hoping he would remember quickly on his own, but it seems I am going to have to intervene and hope it doesn’t fuck with fate. If we don’t act quickly we’ll have more problems than we’ve got now.”

Nayeon runs her finger over the letter. The voice on the other end rapidly relaying information.

“She’s right, we never heard from them after they left on that mission, I think we’re going to have to look into that ourselves as well. Also if the information I just received is correct, we have good news and bad news. Which one do you want first?”

Nayeon pauses, glancing down at the letter.

_….M.I.A, faceless have made it into this reality, we’re running out of time._

_-H.Y_

“Bad news, this reality is starting to split. Good news, that means the effect on the memory will begin to wear off. Either way it means the same thing, we can’t afford to keep waiting.”


End file.
